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Whoever wrote the Technorati article that the submitter quoted (most likely the same person) seems to be unable to form basic English sentences. The original article just states:

A group of Harvard scientists, led by Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin and including graduate students Georg Kucsko and Peter Maurer and postdoctoral researcher Christian Latta, say they’ve cracked the problem, and they did it by turning to one of the purest materials on Earth: diamonds.

Apparently the person writing the Technorati article was trying to insert words in to make himself sound smarter and failing at it.

Actually diamonds are probably one of the less pure materials, because there is no way to refine them like you can with elements that can be zone refined such as silicon. Buckyballs can be refined by fractional crystalization... etc etc.

"In initial experiments, the team used diamonds that contained 99 percent carbon-12 atoms"

"Working with researchers at Element Six, a British-based company that specializes in manufacturing artificial diamonds, they developed a new technique to create crystals that were even more pure: 99.99 percent carbon-12."

Yeah a lot of people are ignorant about this and that suits the DeBeers family just fine.

Diamond is not really so rare. It's just that the DeBeers family has a 80%+ monopoly on the world's diamond mines. They artificially restrict the supply to raise the costs and the perceived value. Of course the diamond cutters have a specialized skill and want their profits as well.

They do sell diamonds that are not considered gem-quality at realistic prices though. They are sometimes called industrial diamond

do a little research, lab grown pure carbon diamonds approach the cost of a gemstone at sizes over half a carat, cheaper for a smaller one. but that means on the order of some few thousands of dollars, not whatever you are imagining.

Working with researchers at Element Six, a British-based company that specializes in manufacturing artificial diamonds, they developed a new technique to create crystals that were even more pure: 99.99 percent carbon-12. Researchers then bombard the crystal with nitrogen to create the NV center, which interacts with a nearby carbon-13 atom.

These aren't your ordinary lab-grown diamonds. Natural carbon contains 1% carbon-13 [wikipedia.org]. As isotopes can't be separated by chemical methods, it takes a lot of effort/money to get that down to 0.01%. The physics of isotope separation is also the reason why Iran still doesn't have enough isotropically pure uranium to build 1 atom bomb, despite decades of effort and a nation-state budget. Granted, separating carbon isotopes is substantially easier than uranium isoto

Yes, but just as the C-13 you're talking about is not absolutely pure, I strongly doubt that the waste C12 is 99.99% pure. That's a degree of purity that takes some doing to achieve even when chemical separation methods are available. I'm not saying it's fiendishly difficult, but it will come at a cost. And that's before converting it into diamond and bombarding it with nitrogen.

And again, I've always been talking on a per-bit basis. The number of bits that can be stored in one of these diamonds per unit o

To be fair, its the same mystical marketing that causes gold to have value, or any other precious gem or metal used in jewelry. Diamonds are some what unique in that their is one company that has cornered the world market.

Gold has value because of its many industrial uses and for decoration. There are no artificial restrictions on supply. It's just not common and therefore expensive to mine. But investors using it as a hedge have driven up the price.

Oops, sorry, technical correction. Not ANY encryption, only encryption based upon principles that can be cracked via QC. Thus, for example, PKI encryption falls instantly, but 3DES is not vulnerable. Of course, if your communication system uses PKI to exchange the secret keys for 3DES, as is standard, then you are hosed.

You do know that there are other sorts of diamonds than the pricy rocks sold by DeBeers don't you? Industrial grade diamonds are quite cheap and there are ways now to create diamonds even more perfect that the priciest ornamental gem artificially.

And if you read the article you might have run across this tidbit

"Using a pair of impurities in ultra-pure, laboratory-grown diamonds..."

I worked in computer repair when those drives were common. They would drop the partition table and appear as new, unformatted drives regularly. Humorously you could power them on/off 3-4 times and they'd generally pick the table back up and boot normally. Not particularly reassuring.